Code Name: Nanny (SEAL and Code Name #5)(118)

To find out how, watch for Code Name: Princess, coming this fall.

I’ve included the first chapter just to get you in the mood.

A very hot and sultry mood, that is.

Happy reading!

Christina





Watch for

CHRISTINA SKYE’S

Code Name:

Princess

Coming from Dell in

October 2004

Read on for a preview. . . .




Code Name:

Princess

On Sale October 2004

The wind hit him like an ice pick from hell. It was a nasty night in a week of nasty nights, but Hawk Mackenzie barely noticed because nasty nights happened to be his specialty.

He studied the rugged cliff terrain around him. Layered tracks led up the steep hill, then turned, looping back to the road.

That answered his first question.

As he maneuvered his powerful motorcycle through the mud, his encrypted cell phone beeped. “Yeah.”

“Teague here. What have you got for me?”

“Motorcycle tracks. Probably a dozen or so here, but only three sets look fresh. Hold on.” Hawk smiled when he found what he’d been looking for. “Someone’s been through here recently. It’s raining, so most of the detail is gone, but I’d say we’re talking four men and three dirt bikes.” Hawk ran a small flashlight over the wet, freshly gouged earth. “The tracks heading back to the road are noticeably deeper, too.” His voice was grim.

Since the man on the other end of the line was one of the government’s finest security operatives, Hawk knew that every word between them was being recorded.

“You’re sure they had more weight when they left than when they arrived?”

“No doubt about it.” Hawk pulled out a digital camera and powered up the flash. “I’m running some shots for you now. Maybe you can pull something out of these tracks. Looks like three or four sets of footprints, too.”

Ishmael Teague was silent for long moments. “What’s your gut instinct? Are they moving south, or are they headed for Canada?”

“Impossible to say without more tracks. Given this rain, finding anything more here is damned unlikely.” The Navy SEAL squinted into the icy rain sheeting over the cliff face. “They know the terrain, Izzy. If I hadn’t been right on top of these tracks, I never would have found them. The obvious answer is Canada, but my guess is they’re expecting that.” Hawk studied the ground, frowning. “I think they’ll stay local, go for cover, and try to wait us out.”

As he listened to keys tap swiftly at a computer, Hawk was keenly aware of the brilliant mind at work on the other end of the line. On several other occasions he had worked with Izzy Teague, always in dangerous covert ops in towns unnamed on any map, and Hawk knew he could trust the man without reservation.

And trust was something Hawk didn’t treat lightly.

“So we scratch our surveillance in Portland?”

The SEAL hunched his shoulders against the driving rain, feeling the stab of old instincts. “Put a skeleton force there for insurance. Meanwhile, I’ll stay put. Call it a bad ache in my bones, but I think something’s out here.”

Ignoring the rain, he left his bike and walked in a careful circle, trying to piece together what exactly had happened here twenty-four hours before.

Three dirt bikes, traveling fast.

Men with heavy boots. Men who stayed close to the granite ridge so they’d leave no prints.

As his flashlight swept the ground more carefully, he frowned. There were no dropped cigarette butts, no water bottles, no candy wrappers. Nothing left a trace of their identity beyond some scattered prints and a few partial tire tracks.

The SEAL stared up at the forbidding cliff face above him. “They’re pros, Izzy. Everything here is clean as a nun’s conscience. If they go to ground and try to wait us out, the weather is on their side.”

“Afraid it’s going to get worse, too. I just pulled up a weather satellite map, and tonight’s winds are expected to top forty miles per hour.”

Hawk said a few choice words under his breath. More dank clouds were already shouldering their way toward the coast.

“It’s your call.” Izzy Teague sounded irritated. Hawk knew that any other man would be screaming in frustration, faced with the same set of problems. “If you think they’ll stay local, maintain your cover on the coast. Check in every six hours. Record any and all information you turn up. I don’t need to remind you that heads are going to roll if we don’t recover our package within forty-eight hours.”

“No need for reminders.” Hawk’s C/O had already drilled him on exactly what this mission entailed and why the stakes were so high. As a SEAL, he was used to hearing mantras about national security, but warning of scientific debacle and cataclysmic medical consequences meant a whole new threat level. “I’ll hang around here for another twenty minutes and see if I can find anything else before the rain washes everything away.”

“Copy.” Izzy cleared his throat. “How’s your rib hold-ing up?”

Hawk scowled. The pain was constant and growing, despite the top-secret experimental meds the Navy was testing on him. “No worse than it was yesterday.”

Which wasn’t saying a hell of a lot.

But Hawk Mackenzie had a reputation for success in the face of any odds, and he didn’t cave in to pain.